Neighbors who once fought to clean up a radioactive site in south Denver now hope to cultivate a community garden on the land.

The proposal for part of the former Shattuck Chemical Co. site on South Bannock Street could become a symbol of how far the Overland neighborhood has come.

“It’s monumental for the neighborhood because it brings us full circle from Superfund site to community garden,” said Catherine Sandy, president of the Overland Park Neighborhood Association.

The land is owned by real estate investor Jon Cook, who said he plans to develop part of his Lumberyards mixed-use project on the site after the economy improves.

He said the interim use “sounded interesting,” but he is waiting to see details, such as information on liability insurance.

“I figured, here’s the land sitting there — good, nice piece for the neighbors,” Cook said. “And if they wanted to do their community garden there, why not?”

But Cook said it might be too late this year, as he could lease the land to a contractor for use as a temporary staging area for construction on nearby South Broadway.

Cook’s Lumberyards plan includes about 6 acres on a site the Shattuck Chemical Co. once used to salvage uranium from defective fuel rods, among other things.

The plant closed in the early 1980s, a year after it was named one of the country’s most polluted sites.

Sandy and Deb Spaar Sanchez were among the first neighbors to lead the charge to clean up the parcel.

In response to neighborhood pressure, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began in 1992 to have the radioactive soils mixed with concrete and fly ash to create a monolith, which was covered with clay and rocks.

That wasn’t enough for some neighbors, who continued to pursue the issue until the agency had the materials excavated and sent to a site in Idaho.

The cleanup was completed in 2006 under the federal Superfund program.

“If we had not been successful, this whole area would have been dead,” Sandy said. “Everybody would have moved out.”

If the community garden proposal moves forward, Sandy said, the neighbors would pay for testing through the state and Colorado State University to check for a range of contaminants and metals.

“I feel confident it’s clean,” she said.

Sandy said the garden could include cucumbers, squash and tomatoes, growing in raised beds. She said about a half dozen people have expressed interest in plots.

She said the proposal involves a quarter-acre to half-acre near South Bannock Street and West Jewell Avenue — on higher ground, away from the flow of groundwater.

At a cleanup ceremony in 2006, Sanchez referred to the Book of Isaiah, saying that the group had turned “swords into plowshares.”

Sanchez died two years later, after a battle with ovarian cancer. Sandy said Sanchez’s son, Lucas, came up with the idea for the garden.

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